Rusty Rae: Struggling Oregon newspapers desperate for a helping hand

Rusty Rae/News-Register##

Rusty Rae/News-Register##

About the writer: Rusty Rae is an award-winning editor, photojournalist and photo educator. Holder of a bachelor’s degree from Linfield University and MBA from the University of Washington, he first worked for the News-Register out of college. He returned in recent years to serve as sports editor, then staff photojournalist. In addition, he is now serving as executive director of the Oregon Public Information Partnership. He and his wife, Sheila, make their home in McMinnville.

It’s unbelievable to me that nearly two out of three citizens of these United States believe newspapers are doing well financially, according to a 2024 survey by the Poynter Institute.

The truth is just the opposite: Newspapers today are waging a daily fight just to keep the lights on, the doors open and the editorial staff at work bringing their respective communities the news of the day. And not just in Oregon or even the United States, but all around the world.

This shouldn’t be news to News-Register readers. The paper has regularly told this story, most recently in a Viewpoints article from the Seattle Times’ Brier Dudley, highlighting the plight of the industry.

The Oregon Public Information Partnership — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose website can be found at www.opip.org — exists to assist Oregon’s independent community newspapers develop additional revenue streams so they may continue their work serving Oregon communities.

As a reminder, since 2005, 40 percent of Oregon’s newspapers have departed the scene, leaving news deserts in their wakes — communities making do without a newspaper or, even worse, being served by a ghost newspaper, a newspaper from another typically larger city featuring little or no local news.

Before we look at solutions, let’s take a look back in time and review how we became enmeshed in this ongoing crisis, with community newspapers at risk and, many believe, our democracy at risk along with them.

Many probably understand the internet created the fundamental underlying disruption. One of the unintended consequences of big tech had the internet stealing not only the content from newspapers, but more importantly, the advertising — the lifeblood of any community newspaper.

Disruptions in society are not unusual. For example, when Gutenberg harnessed moveable type in the printing press, the disruption created 160 years of religious warfare, according to Yale University history professor Timothy Snyder.

Snyder notes that it took another 200 years before society tamed this new technology to bring newspapers, books and magazines to the populace and making them part of normal everyday life.

The disruption of newspapers, while not bringing about 160 years of war, has created significant disparity in our country with respect to citizens having access to community news. And that, in turn, threatens democracy.

Where do people turn when they lose their local newspapers? Websites where any hack with a Mac can post any sort of “disinformation or poisonous rhetoric” he or she wants, factual or not, as Allison Gill notes in her MuellerSheWrote Substack.

Even among enterprises claiming to serve as national news sources, there exists today a preponderance of pretenders, spouting any sort of thing serving to draw an audience, without any regard for a factual basis.

This has led to performance reports by talking heads, where every broadcast requires ginning up another bigger-than-life conspiracy to continue drawing in listeners or viewers. For those of you who remember the “Who Shot J.R.?” hype from the CBS soap series “Dallas,” that kind of hype is typical of all too many purported news broadcasts today.

Studies show that communities without a local newspaper are more partisan, have a reduced tendency to participate in elections and view government agencies less favorably, serving to undermine the workings of our government. So, what is the solution?

First, turn off your iPhone, iPad or computer — for a few minutes, anyway — and read paid copies of your local newspaper.

Make your local newspaper the disrupter of today’s digital news mayhem. Do it because ink on paper tells a story that you can’t delete or change, allowing you to hold its writers and editors accountable.

Yes, collecting, processing and distributing the news costs money — so much so that today’s newspapers are not generally profitable. But neither are other necessities of ours, such as clean water and air.

Commit to the printed word of a newspaper. It’s at the heart of a democracy.

Along the way, learn the difference between news and opinion.

I hear regular comment from the community about the News-Register being biased. I can only assume this is coming from someone who doesn’t know the difference between a news story and an opinion piece — one like this Viewpoints article, which is designed to interpret the news of the day from a fully disclosed point of view.

Perhaps you disagree with an opinion expressed in the News-Register’s Viewpoints section. Great!

Diversity of thought is one of the bases for a great community. You are not only invited to respond, but actually encouraged, via a letter to the editor or a more substantial form of commentary.

Sure, I’m biased with respect to point of view in our local newspaper, as I work side-by-side with bona fide journalists trained to produce balanced accounts of city council or county commission actions, fairly reflecting both sides of the story.

But there is much more to the content of a newspaper than that. It includes coverage of nonprofits, schools and the arts, of inspirational people, and of other elements of the fabric of a community.

Readers should be proud the News-Register still exists. Many communities in Oregon are now considered news deserts, as they no longer have any local source producing original local content on a daily or weekly basis on issues of local relevance.

One need only look at Ashland so see what this can lead to. The website of the Ashland Daily Tidings, which has not been published since 2023, has been hijacked by someone posting AI compilations based on who knows what from who knows where.

Another way to support local news and avoid a fate like that, of course, is to advertise in the paper.

Advertising is the lifeblood of a newspaper. It pays for reporters, photographers and editors to provide the news of the day on the community’s behalf. The way I see it, that’s just part of the cost of being a member of a vibrant community.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t also suggest you use OPIP’s donation program as a way of contributing to the local news team working to enhance and expand reporting on public records, public meetings and legal notices here.

Timely acquisition and use of such information is vital to the reporting undertaken by our news and editorial staff. It is also crucial to the paper’s services to an informed public.

While you’re at it, you can also consider dropping a few shekels for OPIP’s overall program and thus contribute to the cause in other Oregon communities as well.

The link to donate to the N-R is bit.ly/3CtTY6Y. The link to donate to the broader cause is bit.ly/4avZMtp.

Additionally, you can lend support to newspaper sustainability legislation, such as that passed in New York and Illinois earlier this year. Something of that sort would be a godsend for struggling newspapers in Oregon.

In Canada, Google is giving the Canadian government $100 million a year for distribution to qualifying newspapers. That is the kind of boost we need.

As Professor Snyder notes, it’s up to us to make the internet work for the people, just as the citizens did when they helped transform the printing press into an agent for the public good.